especially if they weren't going to have a nutritionist on staff to define "low" and make the chefs stick to it.

I don't think I could have handled another Olive Oil Squeeze Bottle Controversy. The scars from last year are still too fresh.

I do always wonder why the person who takes the salad course doesn't ever just grill some freaking shrimp and toss them on top so the judges can't accuse them of not cooking anything.

At the very least!

Also, hi new mama!

I loved that Brian got called on the carpet for not following the challenge despite his immunity.

And there's the problem with the cholesterol challenge (like Jess says, especially without a nutritionist or someone on hand.) No way he knew it was high cholesterol when he bought it. He was thinking seafood-lighter-score! Someone told him, and he had to change his line to try to justify why it was there. Kind of BS if you ask me.

Well, not adding fat would keep the cholesterol level at base.

What fat do you add to meatloaf anyway, besides maybe an egg for a binder?

I can't remember what Micah had to choose from but Sarah had a number of dishes that she could choose.

It was that or the fried chicken for Micah. Which she apparently should have chosen if the meatloaf was so mystifying.

Sort of. The sauce is creamier, and usually includes sherry. Plus mushrooms and green peppers. It's another way to use leftover chicken, essentially, and it is YUM.

Yup. And I've frequently seen it with puff pastry.

Again, though. If you don't know what it is - look at it. Smell it. All you'd have to do is come up with some healthier version of a creamy sauce. Add more veggies. Maybe do something like whosit did with the flax seed chip instead the usual pastry options. Not hard.

I got the idea with both of them, frankly, that scorn over what they were making interfered with their ability to do it right.

I got the idea with both of them, frankly, that scorn over what they were making interfered with their ability to do it right.

This is something else the judges have been pretty consistent about frowning upon -- showing scorn, of either food or customers.

And again, I think that's fair. To be a chef at all, let alone a "Top Chef," you should have an open mind to both your food and your customers. Scorning either should get you called on the carpet in this show, if not tossed outright.

I'm not saying you should have standards, of course, just that turning your nose up (especially at customers) is seriously bad form.

Pretty much every time somebody made a salad as their course for a meal have been been sent packing.

It was an interesting contrast between the rotisserie chicken etc. v. the bought sausage and lentils. You can buy your sausage or other ingredients, even to the extreme of freaking instant potatoes. But they have be just that - ingredients. Not your damn main course.

right. If she had bought the sausage and made a cassoulet, it would have been fine.

Absolutely.

No way he knew it was high cholesterol when he bought it.

Oh he totally did -- he even said as much when he bought it. (Doesn't everyone know that shrimp and lobster are high in cholesterol? Is that not as common knowledge as I thought?)